The bar path on a squat is ideally straight up and down, and a smith machine also goes straight up and down. But, it could still be the case that this forced vertical path on a smith is dangerous. A barbell squat should ideally go straight up and down, but who can ever duplicate the exact same positions in space the bar moves through set after set? No one. The plane the bar moves in is determined by the body not the machine..

On a smith, you are forced to adjust your stance and mechanics to the forced plane of movement of the machine. You will rarely get your stance correct to align to the machines wishes. Your form will be even less likely to conform in a safe manner to the machine. You don't get the proprioceptive feedback from the bar because the machine is doing that work.

And to top it all off you don't have to control the bar in an entire direction of movement, so you will use much less muscle to support the load. You miss a great deal of valuable work. You will also end up with muscular imbalances which could lead to injury on the playing field.

1. There's a 70+ year old woman that comes in wearing a one piece swimsuit more than once a week .

2. One trainer does a lot of cybex exercises, and even when doing super light weights, announces completion by slamming all 40 pounds of weight onto the rack.

3. We have TVs attached to the eliptical at the gym. Therefore we have more thin mid to late 20s girls on the elipticals than at most other gyms. They go at it really hard, chasing their dream playing right in front of them - "Friends" from 6:30 to 7:30pm every night.

4. Just how many people use the treadmill just to walk.

5. Out of shape people on cell phones on the eliptical. Just...

6. I saw 3 teenage kids all standing around the front desk with a newly opened barrel of creatine a few weeks back. They weren't saying anything, they were just staring at it with expressions of usual vapidity coupled with a groupthink induced awe. Then one of them leaned his head down, took a deep sniff, and declared "that **** smells so good."

LOLOLOL

Over/under on the amount of time before one of them made a joke about snorting the creatine like blow?

Women in the gym make me laugh me the most. They refuse to do any proper strength work because they don't want to bulk up, they just want to 'tone'. So they avoid heavy weights like the plague and stick to stuff like 20 rep sets with bugger all weight, and powerplates, and pounding endlessly on the stepper.

Its sort of plain to see that the chicks with the best rigs are the ones who do proper strength training. Any woman who squats has a 95% chance of having a hot ass, unless she's a power lifter or something.

The 'toning' myth is holding so many people back it's ridiculous.

We did these exercies as part of our warmups/agilities every single day for HS football. No clue how much they really work.

ugh. I have had this argument more times than I care to remember. Obviously these girls are going to explode with bulging muscles the first time they pick up an 8kg KB.

Crossfit and HIIT routines use time instead of set reps, like barbell or dumbell thrusters. 30 seconds seems long, and doing it as fast as you can seems dumb, but the time concept itself isn't strange.

I've yet to see any women do any real weight training, but I've seen two that show promise. One I'm pretty sure is from the military, and she was at least doing lunges with the barbell and then some other basic compound movements with the barbell.

Another one hit the jump rope pretty hard, then did something akin to power clean/push jerk with just the bar.

It could be better, but I'll take them over the asshats in the smith machine and dumping dumbbells all over the place.

"I don't want to bulk up". Tilts me more than anything else. Yes if you lift a barbell you will turn into Arnie. Wtf?

I often hear the same thing when offering a female some of my protein shake.

But this doesn't dissuade them from drinking three fruity cocktails that could double as weight gain shakes when out with the girls.

rofl, so true. Female ignorance of proper weight training, diet, and physiology mechanics is more amusing than tilting to me. If it tilted me I'd have imploded with rage and died long ago. 300lbs heavy and a cellphone on the elliptical, reading cosmo while leisurely cruising along on the bicycle, 50+ reps with diminutive weights, it's just so frequent that it takes something really extreme to even get me to notice it. I can feel sort of forgiving since this is what they're told by an overwhelming amount of the media they're exposed to. Men on the other hand... even the worst publications and forms of media advocate at least something moderately productive. It really does sadden me to see 1/8th squats, 2 man bench presses, and everyone's favorite, curls in the squat rack.

i need to get my sister on a strength training program. She'd love it. She's pretty athletic (played DIII field hockey and lacrosse in college), and she's got a pretty solid frame. Since she's turned 30 she's starting to put on a few pounds.

pics plz

lol no

I see "Solid frame" "turning thirty" "putting on a few" and my jerkoff time has been suspended until further sighting of my penis.

this guy came in last friday. he wore cargo shorts and a polo, so he was obviously ready for heavy lifting. he put a flat bench under the smith machine and then put the safety stops where he locks out during a bench press. he put 45s under the bench to raise it up an inch or two, and then loaded the smith machine with 500lbs. i'm not really sure he ever lifted it those two inches.

cliffnotes: guy did extreme partials for flat bench on the smith machine.

looks like he got a sick workout setting all that ****e up.

-saw a fine lookin woman slowly walking the track arm-in-arm with her wild-eyed boyfriend for almost an hour

-skinny newb kid doing 10 degree squats on the "squat machine" with 10lbs on each side. is it rude to help these kids?

ahhhhhhh so this big-ish looking dude comes in the other day, and immediately heads towards the power rack with bumper plates, I'm thinking sweet, some c/j or snathces. Just the other day someone was doing hang-snatches w/ good form so I thought there was hope for the world yet.

Anyways, I go back to my workout and a few minutes later look over and he's got four bumperplates stacked on each other on the ground under the smith machine so he can do some shrug variation.

lol

My last workout, a pretty big dude comes in, warms up with some seated calf raises, then loads 225 on the squat rack, along with the pussy pad. Doesn't even get within 45 degrees of parallel. Does some more seated calf raises. Loads on two more 45s on the squat rack for 315, does some more 1/8th squats. Then I'm done with my workout and leave. Kind of a shame because he was definitely big and strong.

Also it was pretty lol since he found it necessary to get the extra 45s from the weight rack next to me halfway across the room, even though there's two racks loaded with 45s right next to the squat rack. The thing is they were put on backwards so the smooth side was pointing out, so I don't think he realized they were 45s, because he did look around with a curious look before deciding on the rack near me.

there is one guy in my gym who comes in cargo shorts, polo, and timberland's and is an actual beast, doing atg 315 squats, same guy i talked about before did 1x30x225 on the bench as a warm-up set.

I'm always afraid to record anything and put it up on youtube, not sure about the legality of it.

Monday I was in the cage doing squats and a dude gets in the squat rack next to me. He puts a 45 on each end and the clips on the Manta Ray. I giggle inside a little and while I'm resting he knocks out some wobbly quarter depth (at best) squats. He tosses another 45 on each end of the bar and then drags a box over. He then does another set of wobbly squats and now his depth is even worse and his ass is nowhere near the box. He finishes those and tosses another 45 on each end! He then folds up a small towel in half and puts it on his neck and then puts the manta ray on top of it! He does another set of really wobbly squats, no where near the box again and then tops the least rep off with a really loud yell. It was quite a show to say the least.

Completely standard. I don't know why, but that's how everyone loads bars at my gym, and at every other serious lifting gym from what I can tell. The rest is obv ******ation.

The plates at my gym are all grooved so they fit nicely together. I do like that.